by Jeff Zillgitt, USA TODAY Sports

by Jeff Zillgitt, USA TODAY Sports

One game at a time has never taken on more meaning than it does now for the Miami Heat. That's their story and they're sticking to it.

But it's only human nature to wonder, what if? And the Heat can't really escape that.

Skip past their next four games, starting today against the Cleveland Cavaliers, followed by the Detroit Pistons, Charlotte Bobcats and Orlando Magic. Not one of those teams has more than 23 wins.

The Heat can snicker at that. After Monday's 105-103 victory against the Boston Celtics, they have 23 wins in a row, second only to the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers' NBA consecutive record of 33.

The Heat don't play a winning team again until next Wednesday at the Chicago Bulls. That could be intriguing, especially if former league MVP Derrick Rose is finally ready to play coming off last April's devastating knee injury. Get past the Bulls and a game at the 22-46 New Orleans Hornets and standing in the way for a 30th win in a row will be the Spurs in San Antonio on March 31.

Now, we're talking. And not even an April Fool's game to sidetrack the defending NBA champs, who have won 12 at home, 11 on the road.

"We want to treat every day as a special opportunity to be with this group, to share these moments together, but more importantly to take a step closer to going after our goal," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra says of their ultimate streak, two NBA titles in a row.

The Heat are hammering opponents with precision performances -- see the March 10 105-91 dismantling of a contender for Miami's title, the Indiana Pacers -- and a flair for the dramatic. Monday, they rallied from 17 down against the Celtics, the winning margin coming on LeBron James' jumper with 10.5 seconds left.

So let's say the karma is with them as they enter April. They will be home April 2 against the struggling New York Knicks -- will Carmelo Anthony be back from injury? -- for what could be 31 consecutive wins. At Charlotte for No. 32 on April 5. And to tie the Lakers' record, at home against the below-.500 Philadelphia 76ers on April 6.

Put that one in the win column. The Heat have won 14 consecutive regular-season games against the Sixers.

Really, the path to the record is there for the taking for the Heat, and of course, they know it, right?

"Nope, not until we get to 32," All-Star guard Dwyane Wade says.

What has changed since the Heat last lost, "dropping" to 29-14 after the Pacers beat them in Indianapolis 102-89 on Feb. 1?

Miami has improved defensively. Wade is back to 100% after offseason knee surgery. And James, well, is The Best Basketball Player On The Planet, averaging during the streak 26.9 points, 7.9 rebounds, 7.7 assists and 1.8 steals and shooting 57.1% from the field.

Wade is not too shabby himself, averaging during the streak 23.5 points, 5.9 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 2.5 steals and shooting 54.6% from the field.

Their leadership, with strong play from Chris Bosh and a core supporting cast of Shane Battier, Udonis Haslem, Mario Chalmers, Ray Allen, Norris Cole and Chris Andersen, has made Miami unbeatable.

"We're aware, and it's a special opportunity we have with his group, and you don't want to take it for granted," Spoelstra said.

Houston general manager Daryl Morey agrees. The 2007-08 Rockets won 22 in a row, finished as the fifth seed in the West and lost in the first round of the playoffs.

"It's harder to do than winning a championship," Morey said of the streak. "I wish people recognized it as such."

But the Heat aren't caught up -- at least not publicly -- in any of this. They know firsthand the repercussion of premature celebration. ("Not one, not two, not three ...")

So, yes, they appreciate the streak, but within the context of their goal.

"It's not important," James told USA TODAY Sports late Monday after reporters cleared away from his tight quarters in the visitors locker room at Boston's TD Garden. "What's more important is that we get better. So in this case, we've gotten better over this streak.

"That's all that matters."

Yet, James understands the significance because he appreciates basketball lore.

"I know the history of the game," he said. "To be sitting in second place (in wins in a row) right now, with so much that this game has given to our fans, and for us to be there and doing it the way we want to do it, it means a lot."

It will mean the most, however, only if it leads to another title.

As ABC/ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy gushed, "The (2007 New England) Patriots would have rather won the Super Bowl than gone 16-0. Yeah, I agree. But what they wanted was both. They wanted to be a legendary team. That's what the Heat are chasing right now.

"When you're as great as some of their players are, you want it all. Sustained greatness in anything is hard to achieve. I think it's remarkable. If they can somehow keep going and push on toward the record, they will never have accomplished anything as hard. Winning a championship last year won't be as hard as trying to do this.

"It might not be as rewarding to them," Van Gundy said, "but this challenge of trying to do this is beyond the scope of difficulty."

Good, even great teams lose to poor teams on occasion, and the Magic have given the Heat two competitive games -- a 112-100 Heat overtime victory Dec. 31 and a 97-96 Heat victory in the streak March 6.

But everything that has happened with the Heat the past two-plus seasons -- the early struggles in the Big 3's first season in 2010-11, the loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 Finals, last season's championship, the close games, the immense pressure -- has prepared them for these moments.

If they are in position to break the Lakers' record, No. 34 would come April 9 at home against the Milwaukee Bucks, who hold the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Heat are 2-1 against them this season, including Friday's 107-94 win at Milwaukee.

For the most part, the Heat have done an admirable job of dismissing all-consuming, media-driven storylines -- the "outside noise," Spoelstra says -- before storylines consume them. The Heat have minimized the streak's magnitude off the court while pursuing it on the court.

They simply don't want to lose, regardless of the streak.

"We're coming out and taking care of business," Wade said. "We're playing team basketball together. That keeps everyone happy, and a happy team leads to great things."

To tie the Lakers' streak, the Heat must win 10 more games in a row, which is difficult enough. That includes two sets of back-to-backs. This season, five teams have won at least 10 in a row. The Denver Nuggets won their 13th win in a row with a 114-104 win against the Oklahoma City Thunder Tuesday night.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers wanted that win Monday against Miami, and at times, he must have thought Boston had it. The Celtics were up 17 in the second quarter, ahead 13 with 8:27 left in the game and had a 99-92 lead with 5:14 to play.

"It's easy to say, 'You know what, not tonight,'" Wade said after the game. "But we didn't want to lose this ballgame, especially not here, not to them."

Rivers knows exactly what Wade means. In 2008-09, the year after the Celtics won their last title, Rivers saw how hard teams played against the defending champions. Still, the Celtics won 19 consecutive games that season, the sixth longest streak in NBA history.

"Well, they have pride, you know," Rivers said of the Heat. "They're champions and they take that mantle and they want to prove it. ... We went through that. Even though you as a coach at times thought, 'This is exhausting. Every night they are attacking us.' The players are thinking, 'Yeah, we're the champs. We're going to act like that.'

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